‘Sparkling’—It’s a Hairstyle—Goes Mainstream
Sera Faery works her magic.
Image: Thomas Teal
One recent afternoon, visitors to the historic Overlook House in North Portland were greeted by peak-bloom rhododendrons and a sign that read, “The faery is in!” Behind the door to the historic Tudor home stood Sera Faery herself, resplendent in iridescent wings, pointed ears, and purple eyeshadow.
“I’ll meet you upstairs,” she said, pointing toward her rented studio. “I just have to make a last-minute wing adjustment.”
Clients pay Sera Faery—née Sarah Faye Jurgensen of Northeast Portland—up to $135 an hour to tie individual strands of silk-blend tinsel into their locks. Oregon is one of two fairy hair strongholds (the other is Florida) where most people have seen it, likely on girls who have recently attended fairy-hair birthday parties, or on older women who want to jazz up their grays.
Local demand is so high that other fairies are swooping into the market, including one from Jurgensen’s own client list. The competition doesn’t concern her. “It might be hard on inexperienced sparklers because now [clients have] too many options, but, because of my own caliber of sparkling, it doesn’t affect me.” That’s as close to a burn as a fairy can get.
After straightening her wings, Jurgensen flitted about tying silver and purple sparkles onto a longtime client, Inge Winters, who retired from human resources at PGE. They chatted about belly dancing and their favorite hiking trails. “People notice the old lady with the sparkles,” says Winters. “They’re a great conversation starter.”
It’s intricate work, involving a tiny latch hook used in jewelry making and unicorn-topped craft scissors. How does Jurgensen know where to place each strand?
“I ask the fairies,” she says. Of course.
Jurgensen, 48, picked up the fairy lifestyle two decades ago. That’s when she started wearing wings, attending events, and meeting others who identify as part of the fairy realm, which she describes as “beauty and silliness and magic all over the place.”
At the Faerieworlds festival in Eugene in 2009, Jurgensen saw attendees wearing sparkles in their hair and fell in love with the look. “I knew I had to have it in my hair forever and always.”
She tracked down an elder fairy who could teach her the craft. It took Jurgensen a year of watching instructional videos, practicing on friends, and an SOS email exchange with her mentor to nail the “single hair, single sparkle” tying method. (One aspect of the knot’s loop is particularly complex.) Jurgensen met back up with her now-fairy godmother at the festival to show her progress.
“She was so supportive and uplifting and encouraging,” Jurgensen says. “She handed me three packs of sparkles and said, ‘Go sparkle the world.’”
Jurgensen started tying fairy hair at a gallery on SE Hawthorne in 2015. At first, she twiddled her thumbs waiting for customers. But after only a year, she’d arrive at work to a line of people waiting for fairy hair.
“I was like, ‘Aaaah! I can’t sparkle all of you at once, what do I do?’” she says. “I wished I had eight arms and could clone myself.”
Jurgensen now opens up three-week blocks of appointments, and they fill up within 24 hours; she spends another 15–20 hours a week on filling sparkle kit orders and scheduling. To address demand (and to keep up with new costs, such as studio rent), she just raised her prices for the first time since 2018, from $3 to $4 per strand, and up from $120 an hour to $135. Devoted clients come in for a refresh every eight weeks, though on careful customers individual sparkle strands can last for a year.
The hands of fairy hair practitioner DyAnne Wood
Image: Thomas Teal
For three years, DyAnne Wood, a former minister who lives in Milwaukie, was a client of Jurgensen’s. Wood grew increasingly frustrated with appointment availability, and realized that Jurgensen had “more business than she knew what to do with.” She penciled out, based on Jurgensen’s rates, that she was making a good living. Wood was at a crossroads in her church career during the pandemic, so she decided to join the sisterhood of fairy hair. She bought a human-hair wig and some packs of sparkles and spent about 30 hours teaching herself to tie from
Jurgensen’s instructional videos.
Two years ago, she opened up a rival fairy hair business, tying sparkles at farmers markets, festivals, birthday parties, and private appointments, charging $2 per strand. “I just sort of bulldozed my way in,” Wood says. “It did feel a little funny. But Sera is a lovely person, and I don’t think she would begrudge me.”
She is right. Jurgensen spreads the sparkle-the-world attitude toward anyone who wants to learn the craft. Besides, tying fairy hair correctly is so tricky, that Jurgensen estimates that 99 percent of clients who try to learn to tie fairy hair themselves give up. But she is not immune to the forces of capitalism and competition. When asked how clients can make their sparkles last longer, her eyes twinkle: “Come to me.”
Sera Faery’s Sparkle Tips
- Hire an experienced sparkler who ties correctly—not simple slipknots, which fall out.
- Use high-quality silk blend sparkles instead of cheap tinsel.
- Be gentle with sparkles when washing, brushing, and styling.
